"Yes; they'll earn their way, all right," agreed Father Richards. "It's a tough region, yonder at the mountains--and the more people, the tighter the living, till they raise other crops than gold."
"Then that's the reason why we ought to be starting--so as to get in ahead," persisted Terry. "This ranching's awful slow, and it's toler'ble hard work, too. Putting stuff in and taking it out again."
"You can't expect to 'take stuff out' unless you do put some in, first, can you?" demanded his father. "That's the law of life. But if you think you can dodge hard work, go on and try."
"Anywhere. To the Pike's Peak country. You have my permission." And his father's blue eyes twinkled.
"Oh, Ralph!" protested Terry's mother, aghast. "Don't joke about it."
"Aw, I can't go alone," stammered Terry, taken aback.
"I'm not joking," asserted Father Richards. "But he'll have to find his own outfit, like other gold-seekers. Then he can go, and we'll follow when we can."
"Ralph! Have you the fever again? Oh, dear!"
Gold-fever she meant, of course. Father Richards smiled, and rubbed his hair where it showed a white streak over the wound received when on their road out from the Missouri River, a year ago, to settle on the ranch, he had been knocked off his horse in fording Wildcat Creek, and had disappeared for months. Only by great good fortune had Terry found him, wandering in, through a blizzard, from the Pike's Peak gold fields; and had brought him home in time for a merry Christmas.
"Not 'again.' Don't know as I'd call it gold-fever, exactly. But I feel a bit like Terry does--I want to join the crowd. It was the same way, in coming to Kansas. We thought this was to be the West; and now there's another West. This ranch can be made to pay--I'm certain it can if we're able to hold on long enough and weather the droughts and grasshoppers and low prices. But----"
"Harry and Terry and I made it pay," reminded Mother Richards, with a flash of pride.
"Yes, you all did bravely. But you managed it by cutting and selling the timber. The timber won't last forever, and the grasshoppers may! This is rather a lonely life, for you, yet, up in here. Out at the mountains, though, they've founded those two towns, Denver and Auraria, and probably others; and I believe opportunities will be more there than here."